CFN ranks us at #70

[Go Gophers Rah]

College Football News is realeasing their rankings of all 120 FBS teams in chunks of 20, starting from #120. They now have #50 - 120 listed and they have us at #70 with the following comments:

70. Minnesota (6-7)
2009 CFN Score: 7.09 CFN Preseason Rank: 60
Key Stat: The Gophers finished last in the Big Ten in total offense, scoring, and rushing.
2008 Score: 6.59 2008 Ranking: 71

For the second straight year, the Gophers were solid over the first half and appeared to be on the verge of turning a big corner. For the second straight year, they lost star WR Eric Decker and then went into the tank. The new stadium was the big star, but even the shiny new digs couldn’t overcome the miserable performances over the final seven games with the wins coming in a strange shootout with Michigan State and a defensive slugfest against South Dakota State.​

We are the lowest ranked of the BCS-AQ division teams that went bowling (no great surprise there).

Here are a few other notable rankings:

#64 Notre Dame
#66 Michigan State
#67 Iowa State
#70 Minnesota
#71 Purdue
#82 Michigan
#98 Illinois
#99 Indiana

I have kept track of the CFN ranking for the past few years and here is what it looks like:
2002 - #34 (in final AP votes)
2003 - #20 (AP)
2004 - #35 (in final AP votes)
2005 - #41 (CFN - but not in the top 43 vote getters in final AP)
2006 - #67 (CFN)
2007 - #114 (CFN)
2008 - #71 (CFN)
2009 - #70 (CFN)

I feel very strongly that we will be higher ranked by CFN a year from now. The question is... will it be a little higher or a lot higher. Being considered the #55 team in the country versus being the #40 team (just as an example) could be a BIG difference next year.

 

[Goldmember]

I always used to attribute Minnesota's poor performance in November to the fact that the schedule was very easy in September. The same could not be said for 2008. The opponents were pretty consistently good to decent throughout the year. Yet, the team clearly played much worse in November. Based on the reasults in September and October, Minnesota should have made quick work out of SDSU and Illinois and should have beat ISU in the Insight Bowl.

We could blame the November downfall on Eric Decker's injury. But that deoesn't explain it because the offense was better than Texas Tech's against Michigan State.

If Minnesota had stayed as competetive in November over the last couple years as they were in September and October the program would be in much better shape.